The two communities spent an estimated $408,000 raising and removing a sandbag wall to restrain the rising Des Plaines River - which ultimately rose to a level lower than had been expected, officials said. That figure includes overtime pay, sand, hauling, equipment and rental costs, said Glen Andler, the director of public works for Mount Prospect. Final figures are still being determined.

Mount Prospect spent an estimated $177,000 on construction of the wall and $85,000 on demolition, Andler said. Pam Arrigoni, the assistant to the administrator of Prospect Heights, put their building costs at about $111,000, with another $35,000 for cleanup.

Workers from both communities, helped by hundreds of neighbors and volunteers, started making the sandbag wall on River Road on May 24, finishing in 30 hours. The road was reopened at 7 p.m. on May 28.

"Things turned out much better than we had anticipated," said Mount Prospect's village manager, Mike Janonis.

About half of the sandbags used to build the wall on River Road were hauled to a landfill by ARC Disposal, Andler said. Others - about 40 truckloads - were donated to a horse farm in the far northwest suburbs that used the sand for a corral, officials said. "They took it off our hands," Andler said. "We just had to pay for the hauling."

Last month, Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared parts of Wheeling Township a state disaster area. Officials of both Mount Prospect and Prospect Heights hope they will get reimbursed by state and federal emergency management agencies.

But they also want to see more permanent measures for flood prevention.

The expectations of heavy flooding "should serve as a wakeup call," said the Mount Prospect mayor, Gerald Farley. "We were lucky this time, but that's no indication that we'll always be lucky."

Plans on the Levee 37 project - which would build a wall along the river - have been stalled recently, and Farley hoped work would begin again soon. "We've got a small window of opportunity where we can get together once again to solidify some plans that are taking far too long to study," Farley said.

"I hope that next time we have a wall in place rather than resorting to sandbags."

BY MATT DOMINIS
Des plaines Times